This ethnographic study of a male kindergarten teacher in inner-city Milwaukee (Wisconsin) provides a picture of a classroom in which children from one of the city's most troubled neighborhoods work peacefully as they learn reading, writing, and other school knowledge. Most important, perhaps, is that they learn a way to act and participate in school that will serve them throughout their lives. Observations from the study show that the teacher works to create a safe, warm environment by making connections with home and family, by assuring children that nothing bad is going to happen, and by encouraging laughing and joking. He also makes the classroom a predictable text by building the days and weeks from events and activities that are consistent throughout the school year, and he spends much time and energy on direct teaching of what the children are supposed to do. These practices reflect notions of culturally relevant teaching found in the work of L. Delpit and G. Ladson-Billings. (SLD)